1991 Orbit Illusion 531 Competition...FINISHED!

Re:

Thats a fantastic looking bike!

Re:

Thanks Chris, glad you like it. It's turning out rather well I think. Just a shame I can't seem to photograph it well enough to show off its paintjob properly. It's a really nice pearl off-white, almost a cream really. The metallic blue shows up well enough in most of the pics, but the rest of the frame just looks white. Whatever, I'm grateful to the previous owner who chose the colours.

Been rather busy lately, so i haven't been able to do much more to it. However, the Reynolds decals arrived, so found enough time to fit them. Accepting the fact that it's not quite finished, they make a nice finishing touch to the frame.
IMAG1631 by Toby Taylor, on Flickr

IMAG1633 by Toby Taylor, on Flickr

IMAG1634 by Toby Taylor, on Flickr

The bar tape arrived too. Pleased to say it's almost exactly the same shade as the saddle. When they're separated by a couple of feet, I doubt you'd tell the difference
IMAG1635 by Toby Taylor, on Flickr

Regards

Marge

Re:

The deda tape is a good match for the charge saddle, I built this a while ago

https://www.instagram.com/p/BEWWJ71p-Bs/

Re:

Hi. Been so busy recently that I haven't had time to post any updates. There wasn't much left to do, so I got the gears set up on Friday evening, fitted the bar tape, bottle cages and pedals on Saturday and went for the first ride on it on Sunday. Here are some pics.
IMAG1680 by Toby Taylor, on Flickr

IMAG1682 by Toby Taylor, on Flickr

IMAG1684 by Toby Taylor, on Flickr

IMAG1687 by Toby Taylor, on Flickr

A few pics taken during the ride

IMAG1688 by Toby Taylor, on Flickr

IMAG1691 by Toby Taylor, on Flickr

IMAG1690 by Toby Taylor, on Flickr

IMAG1692 by Toby Taylor, on Flickr

IMAG1693 by Toby Taylor, on Flickr

Really pleased with it so far. Rode a bit over 30 miles on it, taking it easy to begin with while I got used to it. It's much stiffer than I expected; the frame tubes are so skinny I thought it might flex about like some overcooked spaghetti. Probably not a bad thing, it's got proper man gears, so climbing out of the saddle is necessary on the steeper inclines. Normally I sit in as my modern bikes have compact chainsets and wide 10 speed rear cassettes.

Ride position is about right, brakes are excellent, rear shifting spot on, front shifting needs a tweak, quite like the Cinelli bars and I'm not quite sure about the saddle. Hopefully it'll break in at some point.

Regards

Marge

Nice I like what you've done with it. just bare in mind you don't have to suffer the gears as you can use a 38 on the front and a 28 on the rear to make life much easier

Re:

It looks fab, Marge! The epitome of a quality steel frame with all the right bits. Just the look I'm seeking for my build. :mrgreen: BTW did the Illusion decals ever arrive?

Super job, well done!

Re:

Hi. Thanks for the replies. I've done a couple of rides on it now, and am really impressed by it. Feels like it was a proper racing bike bitd. Put it this way; I have an 18 mile ride that I've done plenty of times in the evening after work. Hardly any of it is flat, fast descent to begin with, then a 2 mile long climb, descent down the other side, some rolling hills and a steep climb to get back home.

Must've done it 15-20 times over the last 3-4 years. On only a couple of occasions have I got home in just under an hour. Normally it's around an hour and 5 to 10 mins. First time out on the Orbit resulted in exactly 1 hour and 2 minutes. Nuff said really. Still waiting on those decals though....

Regards

Marge

Re:

That's the magic of a steel frame.

The bike looks really excellent.

it's a grand looking bike.

I found with that Deda tape that if you get really anal-retentive when wrapping it you can hide pretty much all of the silver logos....

Re:

Ah...a Dudley Orbit. I picked up an America from the factory in 1992. Oribably the same 531c frame as yours. Got it down to 18lb in the end, with 9-speed 105 kit and carbon A-head forks.